Rocket Knight trailer sparks our interest

Two things about this trailer for the new Rocket Knight (after the break) stand out upon our first viewing:

1. The stylized projectile/jetpack effects
2. It's a Rocket Knight Adventures game

That last one may seem obvious, but we're still a bit shocked to see Konami bring the series back after so long -- to be honest, we're a bit shocked every time Konami announces a game that isn't Metal Gear.

And, to our delight, what we see here is true Rocket Knight: Sparkster has his sword and his jetpack, the latter of which is used basically to bounce all over the screen. It's here that the 3D remake actually benefits the game: with the wider area and the smaller Sparkster, he seems to have a lot more freedom to fly around. Even the shooter stages have returned, with some interesting dynamic camera work.

If you never paid attention to this series because of mid-90s animal mascot platformer overload, you should start getting familiar with it now. Forget Gex, Aero the Acro-Bat, Punky Skunk, Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel, Awesome Possum, and Socket. This one's actually good.